


What's Next?

by nyny17



Category: The Mindy Project
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-23 14:31:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6119356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyny17/pseuds/nyny17
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another, what happens next...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Making the Move

**Author's Note:**

> When I saw Mindy's Instagram picture last night of her out in the West Village at night with some guy who looks taller than Danny, my mind started racing.

Danny walks into the living room after getting dressed for the day to see his fiancee, his son, and his mother all in the kitchen. “Hey Ma, this is a surprise, what brings you here?” Danny inquires. 

Mindy is moving around the apartment gathering Leo’s favorite things: his blanket, his stuffed elephant, and all the books he loves. She’s quickly putting them in his diaper bag along with enough wipes and diapers to last through the afternoon. Annette is, for once in her life, quiet as she is dancing with Leo around the kitchen. She knows something’s off. She knew when Mindy called her after midnight to come pick up Leo for the day, that something was about to happen. Annette doesn’t respond, she turns to look at Mindy to answer Danny. 

Danny’s looks even more confused. He turns between the two women in his life, trying to figure it out.  
“Why are you packing up Leo's stuff Min?”  
“Ma, I thought you had your water aerobics class this morning. What’s going on here, and why am I out of the loop?” 

Mindy continues scavenging the apartment for anything Leo may need today. She drops the bag by the door and goes to Annette and takes Leo in her arms and covers his face with kisses making him cry with joy. Mindy’s holding on to him tightly, like a lifeline. Leo is enjoying his crazy mama. 

Danny watches this and his gaze turns to his mother. Annette avoids his eyes for as long as she can, and the she looks right at him, pitifully. His heart sinks. What is going on here?! 

Mindy hands Leo to Danny and tells him to say goodbye to his daddy. That they’ll pick him up from Grandma’s house when they come for dinner tonight. Still confused, Danny takes Leo and kisses his cheek and hugs him tightly. Annette then comes forward to take her grandson and heads towards the door, picking up Leo’s bag. 

“I’ll see you both tonight?” she questions as she looks directly at Mindy. 

“Of course,” Mindy replies as she begins gathering herself for battle. Danny walks his mom and Leo to the door and they exchange another goodbye before he closes the door behind them. Mindy walks to the living room, takes a deep breath and sits on the couch as Danny turns and watching her. 

“What is going on Mindy?” Danny asks softly. Confused but also wary. He’s worried. Very worried. Quiet Mindy is rarely a good thing. 

Mindy looks at Danny with tears already in her eyes. Her hands are folding into each other repeatedly. Her leg is shaking as she comes up with the words. Bluntly and firmly she states, “Danny. Leo and I are moving into my apartment. The movers will come tomorrow, so we have the weekend to get settled. I think this is the best for all of us right now.” 

Danny can’t breathe. Where is the air? He bends over to try to catch his breath. “Wait.” Danny begins, “I know things have been bad for a while now. I put off the wedding. That doesn’t mean you have to leave. You can’t take Leo from me. I want my family here. With me.” He’s shaking his head, voice trembling, eyes darting, wondering what is wrong with Mindy. Why is she doing this to him. He questions her, “Why are you doing this to me? To punish me for postponing the wedding? Fine. Set a date. Let’s do this.”

Mindy rolls her eyes as the tears continue to fall. “No. You don’t even see it Danny. I’m doing this for me. I hate to separate you from Leo, but you’ll still see him all the time. Danny, you tried to force me to quit my job, get me pregnant without my consent, and you have no concern for what I want. You aren’t being a good partner or father right now."

“But—“ he begins.

"NO. Listen to me. I have tried to compromise so much that I’m losing myself. How am I, Mindy Lahiri, with someone who is trying to tell me what to do? I tried to stay home and I hated it. I did that for you, and I was miserable. Do you even care? Have you even asked? You’re so laser-focused on what YOU think is important for Leo, that you’re not seeing what’s been going on. Leo is amazing. I’m a good mom. A really good mom. Leo and I talk all day, every day. I sing to him, I read to him, he’s part of everything that happens in my life and I have two huge jobs. Can you say the same?"

Danny has no idea what Mindy’s saying. 

She continues, “Yes, I’ve always wanted to get married, and I desperately wanted to marry you. But you’re making that impossible. I’m not going to be in a relationship with someone who doesn’t love me for me. Who doesn’t care about what I want. Who doesn’t listen to me. Who isn’t flexible and willing to compromise…and who doesn’t only give in when it’s at the ultimatum stage. This isn’t an ultimatum, Danny. I’m leaving. You need to figure out what you want. Because it’s not me, Mindy Lahiri who is a gynecologist, fertility expert, AND a mother and wife. But that’s what I want to be. 

Emphatically, she says, "I can’t believe you don’t love the me that I’ve become. The best me, I’ve ever been.” She softly states, with heartbreak in her voice. “It breaks my heart that you don’t love that me.” 

Danny turns away, because he knows it’s true. He can’t let go of what he wants and what he thinks is best, to work with her. Why can’t he do that? 

“I think you have big love in you to give Danny. I know you love Leo and I think you love me. You just can’t get to it because there’s something blocking it. There’s something right now that comes before us. It's not healthy for us to be with you when that’s happening. You think my job comes before Leo and it doesn’t. It’s important, but he comes first. But my job makes me the person who is happy and fulfilled to come home to Leo every night. So I’m able to give him all of my heart and everything he needs. I want that for you too, but you’re not able. I want you to find out why. I want you to fix it. Please fix it, so Leo has the dad he needs. So I have the man I fell in love with and the family I’ve wanted for my entire life." 

Mindy whispers, "Danny… can you do that?”

“I can’t believe you’re punishing me for the horrible childhood I had.” he spits at her. 

She shakes her head and looks down, frustrated that he doesn’t see it. “You’re punishing yourself and, in turn, punishing Leo and I. You have to fix this Danny. You have to. Please try,” she begs.

He grabs his jacket and walks to the door. “You have no idea what you’re talking about Mindy. You’re leaving me. Just like everyone else has. You are doing this to us. Not me. You are breaking up our family. I told you this would happen. I told you I couldn’t do this."

“Danny you’ve made it happen. You spoke it and it came true. You can change it though Danny. I want you to. Do you want to change this path you’re on? Of putting your pain before anyone and anything you love? Leo needs you, Danny."

"I know he does!” Danny yells. "But you’re taking him from me!"

Quietly Mindy states, "I’m physically taking him from you, but you’ve not been here emotionally since you left for California. I’m trying to protect us both.” She turns to head to their room to start packing. 

“I’m going to be packing today. I understand if you don’t want to help. The movers come tomorrow morning at 8. Tonight’s the last night we’ll stay here. We can go get Leo together and have one last night here as a family.”

"Thanks for letting me in on the plan for my family, Mindy,” Danny says as he slams the door on his way out. He’s confused, hurt, pissed, baffled, and heartbroken. What the hell just happened? Why is this happening? He has no idea what to do now or where he’s headed.

Mindy flinches as the door slams. Her eyes close for a few seconds before she takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly and raising her head, shrugging back her shoulders, and heads to the bedroom to start packing. Heartbroken, alone, yet feeling a weight is being lifted off of her. She’s going home.


	2. Moving on?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had three ideas for stories, but after I wrote chapter 1, I realized they could fit as a multi chapter story. As I'm piecing it together, it's grown a bit. Hope it works!

Mindy’s date isn’t going well. This guy is talking about Kayne non-stop and hasn’t once asked a question about Mindy. Sure she loves a guy with money, but when that’s your second topic of conversation only to Kayne's twitter and the Kardashians, it’s a bit much. Even for her. 

_I can’t believe I’m having to date again,_ Mindy seethes. _I thought I was through with this. I thought I’d won the partner lottery with my best friend and his crazy Italian mother. Why the fuck am I having to do this again?_

Kenny doesn’t even realize she’s not paying attention to his ramblings. _Good_ , she thinks. _Let me order 3 desserts and then I’m out of here. Home to snuggle with the only man besides my dad, I can trust to love me_.

Kenny continues his boasting and bragging all through dessert and finally Mindy’s on her way upstairs to her apartment, alone. Is it weird that her ex-future-mother-in-law babysits for her while she goes on dates with men who aren’t her son? Mindy was surprised as much as anyone when Annette suggested Mindy get back out there to start dating again, and that she volunteered to watch Leo.

She turns the key and opens the door expecting to find Annette passed out on the couch with QVC playing loudly. Instead she finds an eerie silence. She scans the room and her breath catches as she spots Danny lying on the couch, book in hand.

"What are you doing here?" Mindy gasps. She walks toward the hallway looking to see if Annette is in her bedroom. _What is going on here?_

Danny sits up, closes his book, and mumbles that Dot had an emergency and his mom had called him to come over to stay with Leo. He shoves his book in his bag and starts toward the door. 

"That's it? You've got nothing else to say? You're just leaving?" Mindy responds, with her hand on her hip and blood pressure coming to a quick boil.

"Well I wasn't sure if you were bringing your date back with you. I didn't want to be in the way," he icily replies as his eyes bore into hers.

She gasps as if she's been punched. Her eyes fill with tears. _How could he?_

When she left him, she calmly explained to him why she had to go. She asked him to get help. She asked him to fix whatever it was that was keeping him from loving her and Leo the way she knew he wanted to. She did it softly, calmly. _Did it effect him at all? Has he done anything to fix what's broken with them? Or does he not even care?_

Mindy lashes back, all her anger that's been bottled up coming out now, "I'M SO MAD AT YOU DANNY! WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO US? Where is the Danny who told me he was all in? TWICE! Where is the Danny who said I only date assholes, because he was right! YOU! YOU ARE THE ASSHOLE! Where is the Danny who said don’t let anyone treat me that way?! Where is the Danny who gets turned on by watching me do great things delivering babies?! I TOLD YOU TO FIX IT! ARE YOU FIXING IT?! ARE YOU DOING ANYTHING TO FIX US?! DO YOU EVEN CARE WE AREN'T TOGETHER ANYMORE?! DO YOU?!" The tears begin to roll down her cheeks.

"I told you I couldn’t change this much," he responds, his eyes never leaving hers.

"What are you talking about? You’ve changed SINCE we got together, not from when you were single. When we weren’t together you told me all those things. And now you think they’re wrong? You think me working makes ME a bad parent when you left Leo for MONTHS after he was born. You left HIM. You left ME."

"You told me I should go Mindy," Danny responds sadly but vehemently.

"I told you to go check on him. I never ever thought in a million years that you would leave me and your newborn son for months, especially to take care of the man you abandoned you. I thought WE were your loves. Your priorities. Your family."

Danny looks down, silent.

"But I guess we don’t don’t mean to you what you say we do. Actions speak louder than words Danny. Though your words have hurt me more than anything Josh, Casey, Brendan, or Jeremy ever did to me."

Danny looks at her now. His face full of pain, anger, and she doesn’t know what’s going to happen next. “I love you and Leo more than anything in the world,” he states emphatically never losing the eye contact.

Mindy shakes her head. Her tears continuing to flow. “No you don’t. You love the pain caused by your dad more. You love the pain caused by Christina leaving you more. Those things are more important to you than me and Leo. You continually put those things first in your life while losing the two things that want you and need you in their lives more than anything."

"You left when Leo was just born. I was scared Danny. I was really scared of the kind of mother I would be. But remember when we had that talk where we both said we needed each other to do this. I couldn’t wait to be a parent with you. For us to do this together. I wanted to do all this with you. For you be the grouchy mean old parent, and I get to be the good guy," she smirks. "Us staying up late at night feeding him, soothing him back to sleep when he wakes up and then cuddling together because of how exhausted we are. I didn’t get any of that. I did it all by myself. I didn’t want to, but because of the choices you made I did. And what I learned was I didn’t need you. I can do it alone. I don’t want to and NEVER wanted to do it alone, but I can."

Pain and regret fill Danny's eyes.

"When you kissed me on that plane, I dropped everything for you. I’ve tried to make us work since that day, but you have continually pushed me away. You wouldn’t even consider me as part of your family until I was pregnant. Why did I stand for that? Why did I think things would change when Leo was born? I thought at least you would never leave us then because you didn’t want to be like your father. But you still left us. I should have known. I don’t know why I didn’t see this coming. I just wanted you to love me as much as I love you."

He puts his hand on the doorknob. There's only so much of this he can take. Time to run.

She continues softly, "I love you more than any man I’ve ever been with, Danny. I love that you’re old and grouchy. I love that you love your mother so much. I love that you want to be a great doctor and help bring babies into this world. I love that you love to cook and the Yankees. I love those stupid red glasses and your piano playing. I love it all!" she breaks off, trying to hold herself together

Both of their phones peep, simultaneously. In the silence they take a breath and weigh if they need to check them. A patient? Tentatively they both reach for their phones to see that the message is from Annette. “PLEASE TRY. Talk to each other. I love you both and you’re being stupid. Don’t waste any more time. Get it together!”

The read in stunned silence. Annette planned this. A pretty long con to get them to talk to each other. 

“When did my mother jump on Team Mindy?” Danny weakly questions, shaking his head and sticking the phone in his pocket.

She shakes her head bitterly. “A long time ago, Danny. When you weren't paying attention,” Mindy says as she moves to put her phone on the charger and take off her shoes and jacket. “Thanks for staying with Leo, Danny. You can pick him up tomorrow night at 6 like we planned. He’s looking forward to going to the museum to see the dinosaurs.”

Danny realizes he’s being dismissed. He immediately has no desire to leave. He misses Mindy. He does want them to all be a family. He does love her so much. “Come with us tomorrow.” he softly pleads.

But she’s already shaking her head. “Thanks, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Min…”

Curtly, she responds, “I have plans,” as she looks at him hard. Challenging him to ask what? With who? Where is she going?

He snorts. Pissed. Again, why should he be? She told him she was done with them unless he got help. She was on a date tonight. “You move quick, Lahiri.” he spits out as he reaches for his coat and puts it on heading to the door.

“Not as fast as when you started sleeping with Peter’s sister,” she spits, as she turns her back to him trying not to let him see the pain she feels.

Danny reaches for the door but turns to look at her one last time tonight. He looks around her apartment. It's messy. Overstuffed. Full of life. The life he wanted. That he wants. Leo’s toys, Mindy’s magazines, purses, clothes strewn all about. This is his life. And he’s leaving it to go home alone. What is he doing? Angrily he opens the door and slams it behind him.

He turns at the loud sound he wasn’t expecting. “FUCK.” he repents.

Mindy’s reaction is wide-eyed with shock and she glances immediately towards Leo’s bedroom closet, hoping that didn’t wake him. And then she hears his first cry. “FUCK!” she whispers as she heads to him.

Angry at Danny yet again for his selfishness. Leo still doesn’t come before his issues. Another reason she knows she’s made the right choice. He can’t be a good husband or father this way. She is miserable without the Danny she fell in love with, but this is not what she wants for Leo. Nodding as she heads to snuggle with her boy in bed, she knows this was the right choice. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
